Sunday, November 30, 2008

Well, the countdown for Xmas has begun. I have to admit that I love this season. Xmas is my absolute favorite - has been since childhood. The last time all our kids were at home we reminisced a little what we did when they were small. Most of all they recalled the events when we came together with a friend of mine and her four kids and baked and decorated cookies. That was really remarkable, especially since you had to clean the kitchen for two days after... But it sure was fun. And I am really glad that the kids have this kind of memory. These days the weeks before Xmas are rather dull. No excited children practically tumbling between my feet, no whispering about wishes and presents, no secret forays to the cookie jar, no rustling of paper and sticky glue everywhere. Although it does take a lot of stress off me, I kind of miss the bustle.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Lisa Walton! My darling husband played the good luck fairy. I wrote all names on a slip of paper, put them into one of my hats and he drew the slip. He did this really professionally - mixing them thoroughly (great job with six slips of paper, hahaha) and pulling a slip with closed eyes ;-)Please mail me your address Lisa, so that I can send you the brooch.

Monday, November 24, 2008

This is sort of a milestone for me. It is the 100th post this year. I never blogged that much in the years before. This is in part due to the fact that upon reading that beautiful magazine "Artful Blogging" I realized that people out there really want to see what's going on. So the more you blog, the more you get realized. I want to honor my readers by a giveaway. Among those who comment within 24 hours after this post has been written I will draw a winner who is going to receive one of my felt brooches. A photo will be shown after I have drawn the winner.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I ordered some Moos - I thought of putting them as sort of price tags to the pieces that are to be sold at our Xmas market. However, I was too quick writing down my data and pushing the order button - there is a misspelling on them. How daft can you be without it hurting..... It is only one small letter too many, but it sure doesn't look very professional to have a Moo with a wrong blog address on it (of all things!).

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Well, today our exhibition closed and I will have some more time to work on my own projects, finally. I managed however to participate in an ornaments swap organized by Beate Knappe. This is an example of the ones I made. I am really looking forward to what I am going to receive.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Much later than promised the photos of my second quilt. I wanted to make the pictures upon setting up the exhibition, took my camera with me and upon making, or rather trying to make the first photo realized that I had left the memory card of my camera at home - DUH! Nevertheless, here they are: The palace of the Winter Queen from Andersen's fairy tale. I have always loved this tale in particular and wanted to make a quilt from this theme. When attending the "houses" class of Gabi Mett I finally had the opportunity to do so with professional help.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

This morning our exhibition was opened. The occasion is a special one: It is our 25th anniversary as a group (Grünstadt Quilters). With this we are one of the oldest, if not the oldest patchwork group in Germany. It was quite nice - the usual speeches (in the picture by our founder, Shirley Herzer), some music, even a cheque from the major of our town to support our next project. This year's raffle quilt is especially beautiful with those different stars.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

This is a small quilt I made for the coming exhibition of our local quilting group. It was made by free cutting the fabric and sewing it together "as it came". I learnt this in a class with Heide Stoll-Weber several years ago. I really like this easygoing way to put blocks together. Since the colors reminded me of earth and autumn leaves I called it "Mother Nature". There is another quilt I made for the exhibition. This is a theme from an Andersen fairytale and being white on white has to wait for daylight to be properly photographed. I will blog the pictures tomorrow. In the meantime you may try to guess what fairytale I am talking about.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Yesterday I was in Wiesbaden and visited the great trade show for hobby artists. This is an event I go to every year with two friends of mine. We have great fun, sometimes attending a workshop, too. (Not this time though.) I bought several small items: Some color for stamping, two boxes of buttons for my vintage projects, several stickers for Christmas cards, some yarn for my embellisher, a brush with a water tank for my watercolor pens. The colorful pieces are tiny spools with thread; they make nice beads or embellishments. I also found some nice stamps, but these were bought by my friend for my birthday, so I will have to wait for them some days yet.

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van Balzer

About Me

I am a textile artist creating mainly art quilts and dabbling in mixed media technique.
Besides I am mother of three adorable grown up kids and happily married to a mathematician. My Chinese sign of the zodiac is the dragon, hence the name dragonquilts for this blog.